Saturday, March 26, 2011

The Weekend in Black and White: TV

Breakfast where the news is read.
Television, children fed.
Unborn living, living dead.
Bullet strikes the helmet's head.

From The Unknown Soldier by Jim Morrison

More black and white photos at:

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Weekend in Black and White: Madonna



More black and white photos at:

Friday, March 11, 2011

Adventures With Acme, Part 5

In previous posts (see links below), I have chronicled the trials and tribulations of owning a vintage plastic camera. It's been over a year since my last post on this topic, so an update is long overdue.

In order to minimize light leaks, I have added some gaffer's tape to cover the red window on the back. This can be peeled back when winding the film. One lesson I learned is that the adhesive on the tape can pull the red window out of the camera, so I added a small piece of tape to the back of my makeshift cover. The two pieces of tape are placed with adhesive surfaces together, so the red window will no longer get pulled out.


Another problem I encountered was the locking lever on the bottom of the camera being inadvertently moved to the "Open" position, allowing the back of the camera to fall off. I solved this with another strip of gaffer's tape applied to the bottom of the camera. It can be peeled back for intentional opening of the camera.



My most recent misadventure with the Acme involved faulty winding of the film. I could get the film to advance, but it didn't feel right. When I opened the camera, the film was wound loosely, and the piece that holds the take-up spool in place fell out. I had some stuff called Sugru in the shop. It's a putty-like substance that cures into a silicone material that is marketed for fixing things you might otherwise throw away. I used this to hold the broken piece in place and to reinforce the corresponding piece on the other side of the mechanism.


So now the Acme is ready to go again--till the next malfunction.

Links:

Adentures With Acme, Part 1

Adentures With Acme, Part 2

Adventures With Acme, Part 3

Adventures With Acme, Part 4